Greek wines are better quality than ever this season despite Greece's financial woes

Greek wines have been on an upward quality trajectory for years, and they’re better than ever despite the debt-ridden country’s financial woes.(Thinkstock photos/Getty Images)At the beach, I’m doing my bit to boost the Greek economy by sipping a refreshing Domaine Sigalas Assyrtiko, a salty, smoky white wine from the romantic, volcanic island of Santorini. Just so you know, this is not just altruism-—Greek wines have been on an upward quality trajectory for years, and they’re better than ever despite the debt-ridden country’s financial woes.

Luckily, now that the banks have reopened, wineries may be able to pay for the bottles, corks, and equipment they need for the 2015 harvest, which starts next month. Because of capital controls imposed in June, though, that will be complicated. Suppliers are demanding cash upfront. So boost sales and drink up. Not a Greek wine fan? You should be.

Three hundred or so native varieties grow in Greece, but despite the country’s several thousand years of wine-making history, many had nearly died out by the end of the 19th century. Vineyard taxation and Muslim prohibition of alcohol during the four-centurylong Ottoman occupation almost did them in.

Then, in the early 1980s, along came committed grape rescuers like pioneer Evangelos Gerovassiliou, who started his eponymous winery in 1981 on a peninsula southeast of Thessaloniki. He revived the white grape malagousia after a professor found the last remaining vine in a remote mountain village (or so goes the tale).

A quick Greek grape lesson: The four major varieties besides malagousia are two other whites—light, fragrant moschofilero and salty, minerally assyrtiko—and two reds: fruity, elegant agiorgitiko and spicy, earthy xinomavro. One of Greece’s best wineries, Alpha Estate, is a knockout producer of xinomavro. When I first visited this bright pink winery in the windy northwest region of Amyndeon, about 25 miles from the Albanian border, winemaker Angelos Iatridis described how he’d tracked down dozens of owners in order to buy 85 small plots of land. Piece by piece, he assembled one single large block of vineyards for the winery. It’s a model of the latest developments in what’s called “precision” viticulture.

A sensor system in the vineyard continuously monitors the moisture content in each patch of soil. Wineries that began exporting a decade ago are in the best position, and many more have turned to export markets since 2009, when, fortunately, consumers in places like the US became highly interested in unusual grapes that offered good value. According to Sofia Perpera, director of the Greek Wine Bureau-North America, US imports of the wines are up 25 per cent over the past five years. Now, Greece is in the throes of a second revolution, as talented young winemakers experiment with single-vineyard wines, special cuvees, even sparkling wines.